Polycarp heretofore, and who must therefore carefully be distinguished from him of whom we are now to discourse, has been evidently shewn by the late learned editor of his epistle. As for our Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, and the great subject of the present martyrology, we have little account, either what was his country, or who his parents. In general, we are told that he was born somewhere in the East; as Le Moyne thinks, not far from Antioch; and perhaps in Smyrna itself, says our learned Dr. Cave3. Being sold in his childhood, he was bought by a certain noble matron whose name was Calisto; and bred up by her, and at her death made heir to all her estate; which though very considerable, he soon spent in works of charity and mercy1.

3. His Christianity he received in his younger years, from Bucolus bishop of Smyrna; by whom being made 'deacon and catechist of that Church, and discharging those offices with great approbation, he was, upon the death of Bucolis, made bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles; and particularly by St. John', whose disciple, together with Ignatius, he had before been.

4. How considerable a reputation he gained by his wise administration of this great office, we may in some measure conclude from that character which his very enemies gave of him at his death: when crying out that he should be thrown to the lions, they laid this to him as his crime, but which

Life of St. Polycarp, p. 112. So the Roman Martyrology.

4 Le Moyne, Cave, &c.

6

5 Ibid.

Irenæus, lib. iii. cap. 3. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 14. Vid. Tentzel. Exerc. select. de Polyc. iii. sect. 5.

7 Tertul. de Præscr. Hæret. c. 32. Hieron. de Script. in Polycarp. Vid. Martyrol. Rom. Jan. xxvi.

was indeed his chiefest honour": "This (say they) "is the doctor of Asia, the father of the Christians, " and the overthrower of our Gods." And when he was burnt, they persuaded the governor not to suffer his friends to carry away any of his remains", "Lest (say they) the Christians, forsaking him that was crucified, should begin to worship Polycarp." 5. Nor was it any small testimony of the respect which was paid to him, that (as we are told in this epistle) the Christians would not suffer him to pull off his own clothes, but strove who should be the most forward so do him service; thinking themselves happy if they could but come to touch his flesh. 66 For," says the epistle," he was truly "adorned with such a good conversation," as made all men pay à more than ordinary respect to him.

6. Hence St. Hierome" calls him the Prince of all Asia; Sophronius, the 'Apynyos, or Chief Ruler, perhaps, says a "learned man, in opposition to the Asiarchæ of the Heathen spoken of in this epistle: signifying thereby, that as they were among the Gentiles, the heads of their sacred rites, and presided in the common assemblies and spectacles of Asia; so was Polycarp among the Christians a kind of universal Bishop or Primate, the prince and head of the Churches in those parts.

7. Nor was his care of the Church confined within the bounds of the Lesser Asia, but extended even unto Rome itself: "whither we are told he went upon the occasion of the Quarto-deciman controversy, then on foot between the Eastern and Western Churches, and which he hoped to

* Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, num. xii.

9 lbid. num. xvii.

10 De Script. in Polycarp. Sophron. Interp. Græc.
11 Le Moyne Prol. ad Var. Sacr.

12 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv,
cap. 14.

have put a stop to, by his timely interposition with those of Rome. But though Anicetus and he could not agree upon that point, each alleging Apostolical tradition to warrant them in their practice, yet that did not hinder but that he was received with all possible respect there; and 'officiated in their churches in presence of the bishop, and communicated' with him in the most sacred mysteries of religion.

8. While he was at Rome, he remitted nothing of his concern for the interests of the Church; but employed his time partly in confirming those who were sound in the faith, but especially in drawing over those who were not, from their errors. In which work, how successful he was, his own scholar Irenæus' particularly recounts to us.

9. What he did after his return, and how he discharged his pastoral office to the time of his martyrdom, we have little further account: nor shall I trouble myself with the stories which Pionius*, without any good grounds, has recorded of the life of this holy man. But that he still continued with all diligence to watch over the flock of Christ, we have all the reason in the world to believe; and that not only from what has been already observed, but from one particular more which ought not to be omitted; namely, that when Ignatius was hurried away from his Church of Antioch to his martyrdom, he knew none so proper to commend the care of it to as to this excellent man; or "to supply by his own Letters, what the other

1 Vid. Vales. Annot. ad Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 14. Tentzel. Exercit. de Polycarp. sect. ix.

Le Moyne, Prolegom. ad Var. Sacr.

3

Apud. Euseb. loc. cit.

Apud. Tentzel. Exercit. Select. IV. p. 76, &c.

'See his Epistle to Polycarp. num. viii.

had not time to write, to all the other churches round about.

10. But I shall close up this part of the life of this holy saint with the testimony which St. John has given to him, Rev. ii. 8. and which, as it affords us a sufficient evidence of the excellency of his life, so does it open the way to what we are next to consider; viz. his death and passion. Unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna, write; These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead, and is alive. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich,) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried: and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

11. And this brings me to that which I am chiefly to insist upon, namely, the death of this blessed martyr; the subject of that epistle which is subjoined from the Church of Smyrna concerning it. And here I shall, in the first place, take for granted what our learned bishop Pearson seems to have proved beyond contradiction; that St. Polycarp suffered, not, as is commonly supposed, about the year of Christ CLXVII. or, as bishop Usher has stated it, yet later, CLXIX. much less as Petit, still later, CLXXV. but under the Emperor Antoninus Pius, in the year of our LORD CXLVII. Now that the Christians about that time,

6 Dissert. Chron. part. II. à cap. 14 ad 20.

7 Euseb. Chron.

8

7

Not. in Epist. Smyrn. 104, 105. Comp. Tentz. Exercit. de Polycarp. sec. xxi.

9 Vid. Cave Hist. Eccles. in Polycarp.

and especially those of Asia, lay under some severe persecutions, is evident from the Apology which Justin Martyr about this very time presented to the Emperor, in order to a mitigation of them which however Baronius', and after him Valesius, place two or three years later; yet hath their opinion no certain grounds; nor does any thing hinder us from 'reducing that Apology to the same time with St. Polycarp's martyrdom; nay, and some have carried it still higher, even to the beginning of that Emperor's reign; as both Eusebius among the Ancients, and his learned editor Scaligers, not to mention any others, of later times, have done.

12. What the effect of this Apology was, we cannot certainly tell; but that the persecution was not presently put to an end, not only the Second Apology of the same Father (however the critics differ about the same), but that which Eusebius' tells us was afterwards presented to his successor, Marcus Aurelius, by Melito bishop of Sardis, plainly makes appear, in which he complains, that "the Christians were still informed

against by wicked men, greedy of what they "had; and prosecuted, notwithstanding the seve"ral orders that his father had given, and the "letters he had himself written to the contrary." It is true, Eusebius tells us that the Emperor Antoninus Pius had set out an effectual edict in favour

1 Ad An. 150. Comp. Spond. Epitom. ibid.

2 Annot. in Euseb. lib. iv. c. 8.

See Dr. Grabe's Dissert. de Justin. M. Spicileg. PP. sec. ii. p. 150, &c.

Euseb. Chron. ann. 142.

5 Scalig. Annot. in Euseb. p. 210.

6 Petav. in Epiphan. Hæres. xlvi. Anton. in Pagi in Baron. ad an. 150. num. 3. Herman. Contract. Marian, Scot, &c.

7 Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 26.

Ibid. lib. iv. cap. 13.